REVIEW ARTICLE


The Impact of Re-tear on the Clinical Outcome after Rotator Cuff Repair Using Open or Arthroscopic Techniques – A Systematic Review



Ilias Galanopoulos*, 1, Aslanidis Ilias1, Konstantinos Karliaftis1, Dimitrios Papadopoulos2, Neil Ashwood3
1 Department of Orthopedics, 401 General Military Hospital of Athens, Athens, Greece
2 General Hospital of Athens “Korgialeneio-Benakeio”- Hellenic Red Cross, Athens, Greece
3 Department of Orthopedics, Queen’s Hospital, Burton-on-Trent, United Kingdom


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Creative Commons License
© 2017 Galanopoulos et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Orthopedics, 401 General Military Hospital of Athens Mesogeion & Katechaki Avenue Athens, 11525 Greece; Tel: 00306974715094; E-mail: galanop.ilias@gmail.com


Abstract

Background:

It is generally accepted that rotator cuff repair gives satisfactory results in the long term, although most studies have so far shown a fairly high rate of structural failure or re-tear. The purpose of this review study is to assess whether failure of the repaired cuff to heal could negatively affect the functional outcome.

Methods:

This article includes an extensive Internet PubMed based research in the current English-language literature including level I to level V studies as well as systematic reviews.

Results:

According to this extended study research, the results are mixed; certain reports show that patients with a healed rotator cuff repair have improved function and strength compared to those with structural failure, whereas other studies support the generally perceived concept that tendon re-tear does not lead to inferior clinical outcome.

Conclusion:

Further high-level prospective studies with larger numbers of patients and longer follow up are needed to overcome the current debate over function between healed and failed rotator cuff repairs.

Keywords: Double-row repair, Failed rotator cuff repair, Single-row repair, Structural failure, Tendon healing.